SPECIAL !! – 30 IMAGE GALLERY INCLUDED IN THE BOTTOM OF THIS POST !!

By Arif Kabir

Muslim Link Contributing Writer

On Thursday evening, July 24, two charter buses parked in front of the University of Maryland. Soon after, more than 50 excited high school students crammed into the buses.

The students came from all over the Washington D.C. Metro Area. They came from Jeb Stuart High and the Regional High School Consortium (RHSC) in Virginia, and Dar-us-Salaam and Blair High School in Maryland. Even though the youth were from different places, their purpose that night was all the same: to enjoy themselves at the Muslim Inter Scholastic Tournament (MIST) Nationals, held in Atlanta, Ga., the weekend of July 25.

After everyone prayed Maghrib, the brothers and sisters got into their own buses and soon, started on their way to Richmond, Va., where more students would join the group.

People began complaining about the long ride before the coaches got onto the highway. As people began getting acquainted, time began to fly by. Two short hours later, the buses were in front of the Islamic Center of Virginia in Richmond.

After the newcomers boarded the buses, the group was on their way south once again. Nearing midnight, the buses slowly became quieter until the only sounds were snoring and the soft, melodic tunes of people reciting Quran.

Hours later, everyone awoke for Fajr as the coaches stopped in front of a convenience store in North Carolina.

People were literally gaping as they saw Muslims of all nationalities coming in the store. They were even more “mystified” (pun intended) when they saw the Muslims with their feet in the sinks for Wudu and later on, in neat rows praying to Allah.

After Fajr, everyone got back into the buses, and a few minutes later, stopped in front of a Waffle House (the first of many to come) as well as a McDonalds for breakfast.

Thirty minutes later, everyone got back in the buses again and decided to start the day with Quran recitation. Everyone took a turn in reciting small passages from the Quran.

After that, Salahudeen Abdul-Kareem, RHSC Coach, gave a talk about the importance of remembering Allah throughout the day and to keep our intentions pure. He mentioned that being alive and in full health after such a long ride was all from Allah and that we must always be thankful to Him for keeping us safe.

After the lecture, the youth decided to sing different Nasheeds such as “Sing Children of the World” by Dawud Warnsby Ali, “Ghurabaa” by Saad Al-Ghamdi, and songs by Ahmad Bukhatir.

Yunos Amireh, from Jeb Stuart High, sang his DC MIST first-place song, “Diversity,” to the group, and everyone joined in for the chorus.

“It doesn’t matter whether you’re black or white – if you’re dark or if you’re light. Yah Allah, we are brothers – coming from different mothers…”

Soon after, the buses reached Atlanta and everyone was amazed as they saw the beautiful skyline of Atlanta. They were even more amazed when they reached W.D. Mohammad School, a sprawling complex with multiple buildings for the high school gymnasium, and elementary and middle schools.

As the DC team passed the “Welcome to MIST Atlanta!” sign and walked into the gym, they were amazed with the amount of people that had come from different regions, including Houston, Knoxville, Tenn., Boston, and even Toledo, Ohio.

The team then went through registration and was surprised by the different rules at MIST Atlanta. For example, all projects were required to be submitted on Friday (unlike at DC, which only required the short film and writing submissions on Friday).

This was a letdown, since the team was still making last minute touches. However, MIST Atlanta allowed a competitor to turn in projects done by team members that were not able to make it.

The rule was nice, but the DC MIST Team was at a disadvantage because they didn’t know about it beforehand. Instead, they left many Regionals-winning projects at home, because the individual team members couldn’t make the trip to Atlanta.

The organizers at MIST Atlanta apologized for the miscommunication and as a result, they allowed the DC MIST Team an extra day to submit their projects. This came as a relief to many of the participants that were still finishing up their projects.

Team DC member Ammar Habib works on his Community Service Project display in his hotel room.

After registration, everyone went for Jumuah at a Masjid about a block away from the school. For most, the Khutbah was an interesting and unique experience.

Aside from making the Guinness Book of World Records for the longest Khutbah ever (1 hour and 20 minutes not including the prayer), the Khateeb talked not only about spiritual matters, but current affairs as well. When the Khutbah came to a close, he concluded, “And that is why… WE SHOULD VOTE FOR OBAMA!”

After prayer, the sisters headed off to their basketball tournament at the gym. The brothers boarded buses that would take them to the hotel so they could freshen up before their basketball tournament later that night.

On the bus, Ridwanur Rahman, Team Blair’s coach, gave a pep talk to the members of the DC basketball team.

“The first thing we must remember before playing is that we must have no arrogance whatsoever on the court because if we do so, losing is better for us than winning,” he said. “Also, we have a secret weapon that the home team doesn’t… And that is nothing less than the weapon of a traveler’s Dua. The chance that Allah (subhanahu wa ta’ala) will accept our Duas is higher during certain times, and being a traveler is among those times”.

The buses reached the hotel shortly thereafter and everyone got off, went to the lobby, and waited while the DC MIST organizers completed the registrations for the hotel rooms.

As the team waited and settled down on the couches, they noticed a lemonade fountain and a platter of chocolate chip cookies. When the team found out it was free, there was a huge rush towards the fountain and in no time, the cookies were finished. However, that was the last time the team saw the lemonade fountain for the rest of the visit.

Once registration was completed, everyone went to their designated hotel rooms. Some, exhausted from the trip, fell asleep immediately. Others worked on their MIST projects. Most, however, got ready for the upcoming basketball tournament.

Team DC’s Mascot carries the DC flag, ready to help DC fans compete with the boisterous Houston cheering section.

The DC basketball players and supporters boarded the buses that would take them to the gym. When they arrived, they walked in the gym with their heads down amid the applause and cheering.

DC’s first opponent was a team from Houston. At first, the DC team was trailing by more than 14 points, and it seemed near impossible to even get close.

It’s no wonder the Houston chering section was going bananas. Their mascot pictured above.

During halftime, Coach Ridwanur Rahman, gave the team a quick pep talk, which seemed to do the trick. The audience watched DC make a surprising comeback to take the lead.

One of DC’s coaches, Ridwanur Rahman, right, gives his team a pep talk before their basketball game against eventual winners Houston. “No arrogance on the court,” he advised.  Team DC lost by 2 points on a foul in the final 3 seconds.

The Houston team made a change in strategy and soon starting driving to the basket and getting fouled repeatedly. They trailed DC by a point with only a minute left in the game.

It seemed like DC was poised for the win, but with three seconds left, Houston went in for the shot, missed, and fell on the way down, getting fouled on the play. Houston made both foul shots to seal the win.

Guess who is the coach from Houston in this picture? Most all of the Houston players and coaches sported their state garb, or at least the headgear.

After that game, Houston played against the Atlanta team. Atlanta came out as the victor but lost against a different team from Houston. In the end, Houston took first place, followed by Atlanta and then DC.

After the games, everyone prayed and then had a dinner of pizza, hot dogs, and tortillas with hot chili. After dinner, the DC team headed back to the hotels in the buses. Just as the team had started the day with the recital of the Quran, the team also ended the day with Quran before turning in for the night.

Around 4:30 a.m., the different hotel rooms were aroused by phone calls from the lobby office (DC MIST Organizers had asked the office to call all the registered rooms at that time so that they could pray Fajr). After praying Fajr, everyone went to sleep and then woke up again around 7:00 a.m. for breakfast, which included scrambled eggs as well as scrumptious waffles with whipped cream.

After breakfast, everyone boarded the buses and headed out to Georgia Tech, where the MIST competitions were being held for the day.

When they arrived at the university, everyone went their separate ways; some went to workshops while others went to competitions. The day went in this fashion until Dhuhr time, when everyone gathered in the main hall for prayer. After prayer, everyone got in line for a Southern-style lunch of fried chicken, boiled corn, and mashed potatoes.

During this time, Imam Safi Khan of Dar-us-Salaam arrived at the university after a long drive from Maryland. Everyone from the Dar-us-Salaam team greeted him and he took turns looking at the different projects. After lunch, he helped escort many of the projects to the designated rooms and attended many of the competitions.

After lunch, there was a keynote speech by an Imam from Atlanta who talked about the great love and brotherhood between the Ansar and Muhajiroon. He discussed how the present Muslims in America should try to show the same type of brotherhood for each other.

Once the speech came to a close, everyone went to their various competitions and workshops. One such workshop was conducted by Tarek El-Messidi, who is the co-founder and director of the Fast-a-Thon. He talked about Dawah, and that the most effective way to do so is not by talking about Islam, but rather by acting as a true Muslim.

Another workshop was being given by Muhammad Abu Talib, who is a native from DC currently studying at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He gave a talk on diversity, the theme for this year’s tournament, and talked about the fact that every group of people have their own special qualities and only together can there be successful results for the Muslim Ummah.

After the workshops, there was a screening for the different short films that were submitted this year. The theme was diversity, but there was great variety in the portrayal of the subject and people were very amazed at the quality of the films.

After the short film screening, everyone got ready for dinner: Chinese food from a local Muslim restaurant.

“We (the organizers) take much care in making sure the participants enjoy their time here,” Ahmed Salim, MIST Atlanta Director, said. “We try giving the best food possible and hope they enjoy our Southern hospitality.”

After dinner, there was one last speech that was given by Imam Safi Khan. He talked about great Muslim figures in history that performed great actions while still in their teenage years. Furthermore, he mentioned many of the problems that youth faced.

He talked about his personal youth and mentioned that in his time, there weren’t many Imams that understood the dilemma that many of the youth faced. He urged the youth to study more about Islam so that future youth will be able to relate to the problems that they face in America in a more effective manner.

After the speech, everyone headed back to the hotel to rest before one last day of MIST Nationals.

On Sunday morning, the DC team had breakfast, checked out of the hotel, and headed to Georgia Tech for the last batch of competitions.

After a few hours, Atlanta MIST organizers informed everyone that Dhuhr and lunch was going to be served at Al-Farooq Masjid, so everyone boarded their designated buses and headed out. Everyone on the bus was awestruck at the immensity and magnificence of the large Masjid.

MIST players in Atlanta for the first time were rightly amazed at the Al-Farooq Masjid, which look like it was transported from the Middle East. Above, the exterior of the immensely beautiful structure.

Once they entered, they prayed Dhuhr in the beautiful Musallah and then they were greeted by one of the board members, who gave them a speech of the Masjid’s history and had an interactive session as he asked the youth what they wanted and expected from a Masjid.

After the discussion, the team was directed to the colossal multi-floored garage of the Masjid. There, they were served a lunch of chicken biryani, hummus and bread. As there was limited seating, the brothers from the DC Team decided to sit on the hot concrete floor so that the sisters could have a place to sit at the tables.

Once lunch was over, everyone headed back to the hotel where the award ceremony was going to be held. Before the award ceremony, the debate finals were held.

This turned out to be a heated argument between a DC participant from RHSC and a Houston participant on whether or not the United Nations should be given the rights to govern a country.

After that, there were also the finals for the Islamic Scholastic bowl (a Jeopardy-style completion) as well, which had teams from Houston and DC as the final contestants.

Once the two competitions were over, Ahmed Salim, MIST Atlanta director, came to the stage and gave a motivational speech to all the participants decrying the fact that in places such as Bosnia, women were being raped by UN “peace-keeping” troops and that in those places, there was hardly anybody standing up for them. [Updated: Ahmed Salim referenced news from CNN regarding the UN indictment of Radovan Karadzic for crimes against humanity. See http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/07/22/sarajevo.rape/index.html]

He said that that the youth have an obligation to speak out against these atrocities that were making little headway in the media since the Muslim youth in this country are very blessed and have the power to make a change in the world.

Once he finished talking, the long-awaited award ceremony began.

At first, Houston was winning everything and each time they would win a competition, they would start chanting the usual “Houston, TEXAS!” but this year, they did something different; they started chanting “Sweep, sweep, sweep” every time they won, alluding to the fact that they were the best and they were going to “sweep” the competition.

However, soon the awards for other regions started pouring in, as DC placed at least once in each competition. Team Dar-us-Salaam in particular, did well as each team member won at least two to three medals, which was unheard of in most of the teams.

In the end, Team Houston came out as the first place winner, which didn’t come out as a surprise because they had triple the people. But people were very surprised with the amount of winnings that the DC team made, as well as the show of brotherhood.

When everyone was on the buses on the way back, Adam Stevenson, DC MIST Coach, told the team, “What makes this team so remarkable is that even though just a few months ago we were all separate teams and there was fierce competition, our team overcame that and out of all the teams tonight, our team displayed the most brotherhood”

All in all, the trip to MIST Atlanta was a very memorable experience. One parent put it the best.

“This trip was like a mini Hajj in the sense that we were always moving from place to place and there were many difficulties that were encountered. However, at the end, the trip was very blessed and definitely worth it…”

Team DC arrived back home Monday evening, after a grueling but rewarding trip. As the national champs in  2007, they are looking forward to retaking the title in 2009.

The writer, Arif Kabir, is a member of Dar-us-Salaam’s MIST team.

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